Album Review

Those who have Jackie Lomax pegged firmly onto the board marked "'60s veterans" probably need to update their address books. He may be best known for his long-ago association with the Beatles, and his Apple label waxings might be all that most people are familiar with. But he has been recording sporadically ever since then, and the same quality that won George Harrison's heart has been evident throughout. Indeed, 2000's The Ballad of Liverpool Slim might well be his finest disc ever. It certainly shows off that so-soulful voice to devastating effect, while the band behind him blazes with slick righteousness. A little funky, a little jazzy, and very American-sounding, it probably took some fans by surprise at the time, but it has now been recognized for what it is — proof that age doesn't always have to take its toll on our older heroes. [The 2009 edition of the album — The Ballad of Liverpool Slim...Plus — remasters the entire original disc and adds a pair of excellent bonus tracks, "Friend a Mine," a tribute to Harrison and other fallen friends, and a live take on "Sour Milk Sea" recorded back in 1976.]

Biography

Born: 10 May 1944 in Liverpool, England

Genre: Rock

Years Active: '60s, '70s, '80s, '90s, '00s, '10s

Jackie Lomax should have been one of Liverpool's homegrown rock & roll stars -- that's what the Beatles believed, and George Harrison and Paul McCartney both thought enough of his talent to back him variously as producers and record company executives at a critical juncture in all of their careers. By rights, based on his talent, he ought to have been at least as well-known and successful as, say, Long John Baldry, yet somehow the necessary breaks eluded him. Born in Liverpool in 1944, Lomax came...